Helsinki Design Week Content Call Open

Helsinki Design Week 2025: 20 Years of Creativity and Celebration

Helsinki Design Week turns 20 this year. To mark the anniversary, both the local community and international friends are invited to a year-long celebration. The festival’s main exhibition is curated by curator, researcher, and educator Anniina Koivu. Designing Happiness explores how happiness can be designed and how design can be used to foster optimism, joy, and a sense of belonging.

The festival, held in September, will focus on the theme Celebration. Spanning across Helsinki, the festival offers visitors and creators a moment to pause and raise a toast to achievements, solutions, and opportunities. Celebrations are significant milestones that sharpen our awareness of time, allowing us to reflect on the past and imagine the future. In uncertain times, unexpected events disrupt the flow of everyday life, evoking fear and concern. Crises reveal vulnerabilities, prompting rapid responses and exposing the fragility of the systems we take for granted. Celebrations, on the other hand, are conscious pauses that acknowledge milestones and, most importantly, set intentions for the future. They create space for envisioning possibilities and renewal, reinforcing a sense of togetherness and shared joy — even in challenging times. “In 2025, we need optimism,” says festival founder and director Kari Korkman.

Helsinki Design Week’s open content call is now live, inviting proposals for events to be included in the official festival program. Submissions are open until early June. The festival offers inspiration and experiences for creative professionals as well as the wider public. Read more here.

Photo: Justus Hirvi